When a prospect visits your website or social media, what do you want them to do?
Is it clear to them what the next step in the process is? Does it help them or just you? A great call to action (CTA) should be clear, logical and help the right people move forward in your sales process because it’s of value to them. This applies equally to small businesses as it does for job seekers.
For example, if you are a graphic designer and are looking for a job, LinkedIn will be the first place a recruiter or hiring manager will check you out. We have already discussed the importance of LinkedIn to demonstrate your expertise. However, with a visual or creative industry, you will be expected to show examples of your work. It will be useful to direct them to either your personal website, Pinterest or Instagram. Do this with discrete CTAs in your profile summary, work history and also in the blogs you write, you can gently direct them to learn more about you and impress them with your work.
Different types of CTAs
CTA’s come in many shapes and sizes to suit different circumstances. The type of CTA you use will depend on whom you are targeting, your clients’ needs and your sales process. It also varies on where the CTA is featured such as email, websites, blogs, social media and so forth. We will explore some of the different usage situations, and give a few recommendations, but remember there is no perfect solution. Your CTA should feel natural to you and your client, don’t force them down a direction. Guide them and let them buy.
Examples of CTAs:
Blogs: if you are a blogger there are many great ways to create effective CTAs. The most common one is at the bottom of the blog, where you insert a clearly labelled button with the next step such as ‘join us’ referring to an email subscription or whatever is the next step or desired action in your process. (See example here) You can also embed hotlinks to your website when you reference your company or experience. The other popular CTA is at the end of the blog, after the salutation, in the P.S. section. This feels like a special message just for the reader and receives more clicks than any other link.
Social Posts: Lovers of Facebook and Instagram will be producing regular posts containing pictures, hashtags and messages to grab attention. But where are you sending them? It’s great to get them to your page, but even better to offer links to your landing pages or your website for more quality information. Often people do all the hard work to get the attention and interest but lack the crucial step of getting the prospect to the next stage in the buying process with a CTA.
Websites: The goal of a website is to take an interested client to the next step in the buying process towards a sale. That could be a phone call, collect an email address or fill in a qualification form. To do that you have to insert effective CTA buttons and links that are tempting for the prospect to click on. Think about what the client needs in the interest stage of the buying process. Would an eBook, a video or checklist be helpful? All of these can be offered in return for collecting an email address or to build engagement in your CTA.
Effective CTAs are an essential part of the marketing process for your business or job search. It helps people to know what the next step in the process is and provides them useful information to build your relationship with your prospects.
Regards Andrew
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